Autism-

People should understand autistics, because it’s a way to help them integrate. Communication is very important in human relations. It’s important to know that people with autism may have also a mental deficiency (60% have above 50 IQ score, 100 is considered a medium score). It’s good that parents and specialists acknowledge that the mental deficiency cannot be cured not even through the best programs, not through the best specialists in autism. The level of mental deficiency offers more clues about the starting point of the program and about the future expectations.

People with a small mental deficiency obtain 52-67 at the IQ tests. Children with a small mental deficiency can achieve an independent level of functioning at 9. For example, they can dress themselves and take care of their personal hygiene. They can communicate through complex sentences and can posses pretty high work abilities. Some children with high abilities can use them to earn their own money for living. Although, because the severe difficulties regarding language and understanding social behavior, few of them get to value their talents socially.

People with a medium mental deficiency obtain 36-51 at the IQ tests. They can wash themselves, can dress themselves and have simple conversations, having low abilities regarding reading.

IQ between 20 and 35. These persons act in an automatic way just in restrain domains, such as washing their face and hands and making simple shopping. Social abilities are very low, and their vocational activities imply a close supervise.

People with above 19 or less are considered to have a profound deficiency. Their deficiency is so pervasive, that it makes them to depend on others in almost all domains.

(Teaching Strategies for Parents and Proffesional, Austin, Pro-Ed, 1980)For people with autism, life is naturally chaotic, some situations seem to be generated by hazard.There is a difference between test intelligence and world intelligence (Uta Frith). There are cases

when people can’t do complicated math on paper, but can manipulate money with a big easiness. In autistics case, they can do complicated abstract operations on the paper or even in their mind, but they can’t manage at all with money, for example. They have no “practical sense”. They have an extremely high abstract intelligence, but we can say that they have social deficiency. It’s important to be noted that people with autism have specific difficulties in “reading” faces and understanding emotions beyond perception. It’s hard for them to understand emotion, to mark meanings to literal perception. They don’t have the capacity to reach beyond the information given.

The difficulties in the interpretation of perception are an essential aspect for understanding the different cognitive style, that we have to keep in mind when we work with people with autism. This different cognitive style is found through the main characteristics of the scientific definition of autism – the qualitative differences in communication, social and behavior interactions and stereotypical and limited centers of interest.